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Columbus, Ga., Cancer Center is Popular for Clinical Trials

Posted on: Thursday, 21 July 2005, 03:01 CDT

Jul. 20--Last fall, doctors told Joyce Tinsley she had a rare form of cancer -- melanoma of the colorectal region.

While the 67-year-old Phenix City resident was readying herself for surgery, the doctors came in again. The cancer was inoperable.

"They said, 'There's nothing we can do for you,'" Tinsley said. "At that point you'll do anything."

In November, Tinsley's doctor referred her to Andrew Pippas, the medical director and head of clinical trials at Columbus' John B. Amos Cancer Center. She's been getting treatments there with a new drug called taxoprexin since January.

Tina Reddoch found out she had breast cancer in October. After researching the Amos Cancer Center, she signed up for a clinical trial on breast cancer patients: one group got standard chemotherapy treatment while three others received varying doses and timing of the medicine.

Reddoch, 51, received one of the different treatments. After her mastectomy, she took lower doses of drugs by mouth every day, intravenous therapy once a week, and then twice a week. Her last treatment is this week, and then she begins six weeks of radiation.

"I really wasn't afraid," she said last week at the center.

Tinsley and Reddoch are two of hundreds of area patients taking part in clinical trials at Amos.

Pippas began working for Amos, part of Columbus Regional Healthcare System, in October 2003, about a year before the center opened. He had been the director of clinical trials at a Lakeland, Fla., cancer facility and took the job to become a center director and to move his wife back to her hometown.

He brought his passion for clinical trials with him.

More than 35 trials are currently being conducted at the center, including for cancers of the pancreas, colon, lung, head and neck, prostate, breast and brain, and for lymphoma, melanoma, renal carcinoma, cancer control and gynecological oncology.

Clinical trials are under way in areas of treatment, prevention, screening and early detection, diagnostics, genetics and quality of life/supportive care.

"It's been shown that practices that do clinical trials research offer a little better level of care," he said. "I think that patients need to have the best available treatment."

The center mainly serves 14 counties surrounding Columbus, and Pippas believes the trials will benefit the whole community.

"I think it will elevate the level of care, the quality of care," he said.

People who are wary of clinical studies should know that there is more oversight than in most treatments, Pippas said.

"Our clinical system is one of the most regulated systems in clinical medicine," he said. "In some ways, it's better care."

All patients have a nurse assigned to them, and the Data and Safety Monitoring Board studies the results every three months to make sure there are no increased risks.

Most of the studies are also already approved by the National Cancer Institute. "The quality issues here have been addressed."

Insurance coverage hasn't been a problem, Pippas said, as most clinical studies are covered, even by Medicare.

All patients who come to Amos for care are automatically screened to see if they would benefit from a trial, Pippas said. The center sees between 200 and 250 patients every day.

Tinsley and Reddoch can't stop praising their doctor. Neither one got sick off the chemo treatments, and both were able to go about their daily activities. "I've been very fortunate," Tinsley said.

Reddoch is an elementary reading teacher in Meriwether County. Aside from the time off recuperating from surgery, Reddoch was able to keep working during her treatments.

"I thought I was going to have to stop teaching," she said.

However, she did lose her hair, something Tinsley hasn't had to worry about.

"That's just been devastating to me," Reddoch said. "Every time I looked in the mirror I thought, 'I have cancer.'"

But she hasn't let that get her down, she said.

"I'm not ever going to have a bad hair day. I don't have to spend money on hair supplies," she said. "It hasn't been a bucket of roses, but it's not the end of the world either."

Both women are glad they took part in the clinical trials.

Reddoch's father died of lung cancer about five years ago.

"I just felt like if this would help other people, I'd like to do it," she said.

Tinsley knew she had to try something other than surgery, and the conventional chemo didn't have a high treatment rate.

"I knew I had no other alternative," she said.

But it's worked so far, even though Pippas won't even begin to say how long she'll have to continue treatments.

"I think she was very lucky to be able to get on the study," Pippas said. "A clinical trial guarantees you not only the best care you're getting locally but also the best care you're getting nationally... I think that the thing that you want to be able to do in a community is bring the most advanced care you can. The only way to do that is through a clinical study."

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Source: Columbus Ledger-Enquirer

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